Re: FWD: Pi redefined (fwd)

["Hans G. Ammitzboll" <physics@mindless.com>]

DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:
> At 10:08 PM 4/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
> > >  "I think that it is the mathematicians that are being irrational, and
> > >  it is time for them to admit it," said Lawson.  "The Bible very
> > >  clearly says in I Kings 7:23 that the altar font of Solomon's Temple
> > >  was ten cubits across and thirty cubits in diameter, and that it
> > >  was round in compass."
>
> "Ten cubits across and thirty cubits in diameter" ? What did the
>                                         ^^^^^^^^
> Bible exactly say.
>
> regards,
>
> sarma.

> From the King James Version:

1 Kings 7:23 "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of
thirty cubits did compass it round about."

Please note that the word "round" here is derived from a word which means "to
revolve."  Also, a cubit is a forearm length, or roughly 18 inches (.5 m). 
Also, note that this vessel had a brim, and that the diameter was measured from
"one brim to the other."  It is not clear whether the measure of the
circumference was also made around the brim, or if it was made under the brim,
around the main part of the vessel.  If the latter is the case, then you can not
use these two numbers to arrive at ANY value of pi since you are using two
slightly different circles.  Measuring around the brim would give a number
higher than 30, and thus pi would be greater than 3 (Perhaps somewhere closer to
3.14?!?).

Anyway, this is all unnecessary since it it obvious that this story is a silly
one which seems to have been made up to parallel the creationism vs. evolution
issue.  At least that is the way the arguments closer to the end of the article
make things sound to me.

-- 
Hans G. Ammitzboll		physics@mindless.com
Drew University Physics Dept.
Madison NJ 07940
		   "Grow up, not old.  Be childlike, not childish."
							-Me